Jenny Erpenbeck wins the International Booker Prize 2024, with her novel: “Kairos.”
Jenny Erpenbeck is one of the most remarkable German language writers currently at work; whose novels reckon with and wrestle with the individual and personal histories and their relation to historical and sociopolitical moments, which change course and direction. Growing up in East Germany, Erpenbeck recalled with casual indifference that she was asleep when the Berlin Wall was in its initial stages of being torn down. While the world and the city partied at the conflux of the divided city reconciling, Erpenbeck was tucked in for the night, surrendering herself to tomorrow. For Erpenbeck, the Berlin Wall was merely the edge of the world for her, a mundane place where her family had outings or partook in picnics. The wall lacked the grimness depicted in western media. Throughout her novels, Jenny Erpenbeck maintains an accountancy of history and time, both in its historical developments and consequences, but also the personal and emotional driftwood, always at risk of being washed away or bowled over by the more substantial and transformative waves.
“Kairos,” her International Booker Prize winning novel is no different. With the dissolution of East Germany as the backdrop, Erpenbeck traces the disintegration of a love affair, between a young student and an old writer. Of course, the novel is not just a testament to the imbalances of love as power; the whirls of passion which inevitably burn themselves out; it provides testimony on the nature of art, power, and culture. If anything, “Kairos,” uses the love affair and its damaging ignition and turbulent end, as allegory of the end of an era, a nation, and a city. An era of immense gains and new found freedoms, undercut by the complete collapse and loss of an entire reality. The International Booker Prize jury praised, Michael Hoffman for his beautiful translation, by embodying the layered and eccentric language of Erpenbeck, with her run on sentences, but also expansive emotional resonance and vocabulary. It was marvelous to hear
“Kairos,” is a novel of
intimate secrets and passions, but also the imbalance and cruelty of passionate
love, while branching out and being infected by the historical and social
changes of the time, which threaten to complete upend one’s own understanding
and certainty on reality. “Kairos,” proves Jenny Erpenbeck herself to be one of
the most important contemporary German writers at work currently writing today.
This award also cements Michael Hoffman as one of the most important translators
currently working, and this is the first time the International Booker Prize
went to a German language writer and a male translator.
Congratulations to Jenny Erpenbeck, a very well-deserved award!
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
M. Mary
No comments:
Post a Comment